Below is the opening sentence from the Washington Post. article:
How much information does the public have a right to know about a presidential candidate’s health?
The secretive president is pursuing a lackluster re-election bid while self-isolating within a narrow circle of family and advisers. A global crisis and a life-threatening medical condition are plaguing his campaign. His doctors mislead the public, his political party remains silent, and Americans hear more rumors than accurate medical information.
It’s understandable to be confused by this grim story in the Post. It makes more sense in context. This article was published in October 2020 under a photo of Donald Trump.
The author informed us that these words are actually about Franklin D. Roosevelt and were created as a warning to Trump. ”
In 2020, the media did everything in its power to stir up such fears. Remember the media frenzy about President Trump being cautious after he spoke to graduates at West Point?Liberal cable stations play it on loop, the New York Times with headings: “President Trump’s ramp-down halt raises new health questions.”
“The ramp I went down after the West Point commencement address was very long, steep, had no handrails, and most importantly, was very slippery,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The Times countered that there was “no evidence that the slope was slippery and the sky was clear during the ceremony.” It was not said what evidence the paper would need to determine how slippery the steel ramps were on dress shoes.
The incident particularly alarmed the media, given that it occurred after President Trump drank water with both hands. At nearly 74 years old, we recalled, he was “the oldest first-term president.”
Fast forward to 2024, and we’re now watching our current president walk to the podium and deliver a speech peppered with big moments. We have a leader who appears to be in worse health than anyone since FDR in 1944.
At that time, as now, there were media outlets supporting the president’s re-election bid. In FDR’s case, the news media presented a false image of his health for more than a decade, never showing him in the wheelchair he used every day.
UPI columnist Marquis Childs called rumors about President Roosevelt’s health “sinister business.” It’s a fear campaign of the most despicable kind. ”
President Roosevelt died 82 days after his fourth inauguration.
We shouldn’t be surprised if the president’s advisers lie about his health. Because they have an incentive to do so. Their proximity to power depends on their boss remaining in the most powerful position in the world.
What is conspicuously missing today is a press corps in its self-styled role as umpires in political disputes. While the media claims to evaluate and expose partisan players, they have become as biased as the players they seek to denounce. They entered the game wearing referee stripes.
Today, the “conservative media” will declare that the president is clearly unfit to serve in office, while the “liberal media” will do everything in their power to obscure and change the subject.
We have been handed the whistle, but simply consuming the news without question is not enough. Unfortunately, when it comes to this and other pressing issues, it is up to us to examine the evidence from all angles and make our own judgments.
